[Showcase] Post your Moon/Planet Landers Thread / Lander building guide.

[intidragon]

Hey everybody!

Since I've haven't seen a megathread about moon or planetary landers, I thought of starting it myself. I've seen all them fancy space stations, interplanetary ships, and everything else related to the words "Whoa that's a big craft!", but not much about landers. In my opinion these things have their own touch of beauty to the whole space program you're working on, especially if you have a reliable and/or stylish design. And another thing about landers, especially the ones designed for atmospheric entry and return capability to their command ships/modules, have to be meticulously designed to be able to do what they're supposed to. So if there are any pros here that have made their own masterpieces, don't hesitate to show them here, or better yet, give some building tips in making landers. I've been playing KSP for about a month now, and even though I've sent a ship to Jool and back just to see if it's capable of doing it, I find myself kinda hooked to building and refining lander designs and testing them on the Mun and Minmus, and have been having a lot of fun with it. But enough of that, let's get this thread started shall we?

And since it would be impolite to start a lander thread without showing any pics of my own, I present to you . . . the two-man lander which I've named the "Rhino", with it's command module. There's KWRocketry, Bobcat's H.O.M.E. pack, and B9 parts there too. Hope y'all like it.

Edited June 25, 2013 by intidragon
To the admin who took down the first post. . . I'm sorry for violating the rules. . . didn't know it was a punishable offense

[Gojira]

inb4Mulbin

I'd post a lander but I don't have custom ones.

[Mulbin]

Inb4Mulbi.... Oh wait, I am Mulbin!

Here are my current landers... well overdue for an update on the Dunebug, I'll get round to it one day!

Munbug VIII

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/28073-0-20-2-Complete-Rebuild!-Munbug-VIII-Saturn-V-Apollo-CSM-Lander-Buggy-and-ALSEP

Dunebug II

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/26206-0-19-Dunebug-II-Duna-Return-separate-CM-Lander-Open-Top-Buggy-New-Design!

Muna-LK2

Currently no thread - killed by the server crash.

Duna-LK1

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/26781-0-19-Duna-LK1-%28yes-Duna!%29-Soyuz-inspired-Duna-return-CM-Lander-and-micro-buggy!

[GusTurbo]

Since the Apollo lunar lander was nicknamed "Eagle," I decided to go with a similarly majestic bird name for my own lander. I present:

The Sandpiper

On the Mun.

On Duna.

The Sandpiper is capable of a full powered-landing and return to Duna orbit. Also, I have to say that I am most fond of the ascent stage. I was very pleased with the fuel arrangement and the amount of fuel it can hold without resorting to clipping tanks inside the lander can.

Edited April 19, 2014 by GusTurbo

[intidragon]

Wow. . . tho think that the great Mulbin and Gus have graced this thread with their presence. I actually got part of my designs from you guys, mainly on fuel placement. IF you guys can, please share your lander-building knowledge (and possibly secrets ) so that more people can hopefully try out making advanced lander designs themselves.

Edited June 26, 2013 by intidragon

[intidragon]

inb4Mulbin

I'd post a lander but I don't have custom ones.

Well I hope that the designs you've seen and will see in this thread will give you that spark that you need to make your very own custom lander then.

[GusTurbo]

So I'll share a little something. The toroidal fuel tanks are great for adding extra fuel here and there, and also for visual flair. They can be used to add color and texture to parts of your lander, which makes it look more interesting. The .625m tanks, the Oscar-Bs are also pretty handy for similar reasons. On the Sandpiper, I've taken cubic struts and placed them at an angle coming off the bottom of the lander can, in 6x radial symmetry. Then, I placed an Oscar-B on each one. To complete that distinctive flower-like look, I stacked toroidal tanks on the Oscar-Bs. This method allowed for good fuel-density in a low-profile package, which is what I really wanted to accomplish for my ascent stage. This allowed it to sit partially nested inside the descent stage and look like a more cohesive package.

The other thing that I liked was how I was able to place the ascent engine, an LV-909.

I can't remember if I placed the engine first or the tanks on the bottom. Either way, it just fit nicely with the fuel tanks and looked very well-integrated.

Above all, I just love having fun with stock designs. I try to push boundaries and be unconventional.

[WooDzor]

My Springbok V Lander on the Mun

[intidragon]

So I'll share a little something. The toroidal fuel tanks are great for adding extra fuel here and there, and also for visual flair. They can be used to add color and texture to parts of your lander, which makes it look more interesting. The .625m tanks, the Oscar-Bs are also pretty handy for similar reasons. On the Sandpiper, I've taken cubic struts and placed them at an angle coming off the bottom of the lander can, in 6x radial symmetry. Then, I placed an Oscar-B on each one. To complete that distinctive flower-like look, I stacked toroidal tanks on the Oscar-Bs. This method allowed for good fuel-density in a low-profile package, which is what I really wanted to accomplish for my ascent stage. This allowed it to sit partially nested inside the descent stage and look like a more cohesive package.

The other thing that I liked was how I was able to place the ascent engine, an LV-909.

I can't remember if I placed the engine first or the tanks on the bottom. Either way, it just fit nicely with the fuel tanks and looked very well-integrated.

Above all, I just love having fun with stock designs. I try to push boundaries and be unconventional.

Aaaaaah. . . enlightenment \(@ 0 @)/

Thanks a lot for sharing, I'll try to experiment more on Oscar-torroidal combinations myself too. . . since I only have one custom design. Can't wait to see if sir Mulbin has something in store for us to reveal about his cool 1-man landers too.

[intidragon]

A well-made lander sir WooDzor, if I do say so myself. quite similar to the Apollo lander as well. . . nice recreation.

[GusTurbo]

I haven't really played with the 1 man lander can, in terms of design. I could probably make something fun.

[intidragon]

I haven't really played with the 1 man lander can, in terms of design. I could probably make something fun.

Ahaha. . . well if you ever make them don't forget to post that lander here.

[WooDzor]

A well-made lander sir WooDzor, if I do say so myself. quite similar to the Apollo lander as well. . . nice recreation.

Thank you. It's still a bit high on it's legs though, and when looking at Apollo reference image i think I want to move the upper tanks down a bit further. Anyway I am always surprised how only a few good images of the Apollo landers are around.

What also annoys me is that there were no HD cameras back then, that really pisses me off :-/

[intidragon]

Thank you. It's still a bit high on it's legs though, and when looking at Apollo reference image i think I want to move the upper tanks down a bit further. Anyway I am always surprised how only a few good images of the Apollo landers are around.

What also annoys me is that there were no HD cameras back then, that really pisses me off :-/

Well the lander looks nicely done anyway ahaha.

And yeah. . . that's the problem if you start the space race before the 21st century, you tend to just keep everything simple and cheap LOL. And imagine if there were other countries capable of funding a space program of their own. . . I'm sure there would be a much broader range of things that should have and could have made it to space and beyond.

[cxg2827]

My Minmus lander. Has enough delta-v for the mun as well.

[Mulbin]

Aaaaaah. . . enlightenment \(@ 0 @)/

Thanks a lot for sharing, I'll try to experiment more on Oscar-torroidal combinations myself too. . . since I only have one custom design. Can't wait to see if sir Mulbin has something in store for us to reveal about his cool 1-man landers too.

The best way to learn is to download our craft and have a good look at them in your own VAB. Basically though my design process consists of spending a week making the ship look the way I want it... then spending a month trying to work out how to make it actually work!

[GusTurbo]

That's often my design process as well. Aesthetics first, engineering later.

[Giggleplex777]

Back in 0.16.

[firerider521]

Back in 0.16.

~snip~

That's beautiful.

[intidragon]

The best way to learn is to download our craft and have a good look at them in your own VAB. Basically though my design process consists of spending a week making the ship look the way I want it... then spending a month trying to work out how to make it actually work!

Ohh. . . I didn't know you spend that long just making it look good then start the engineering process. I'll try to take more time in the aesthetics then. . . since I come up with the whole craft in only a few hours. (); Thanks for the info sir.

[GusTurbo]

Pineapple Express.

[intidragon]

Well at least the lander submissions are slowly building up. Nice submissions everyone. . . keep them coming.

[intidragon]

Ahahaha, nicely done sir Gus.

[intidragon]

just a minor bump to this thread.

[GusTurbo]

I have a concept for a lander in my head that I may work on soon, or that might inspire someone else. One design problem I've run into is that it can be hard to design a lander that has a rover smoothly integrated into it. My concept is for a lander roughly the shape of a cube, using the white rover bodies that I'm so fond of, that has a rover seamlessly integrated as part of the body on one of the sides. The wheels will be attached in such a way that they face inward so they are invisible from the outside.

Upon landing, the rover will be decoupled (or undocked), leaving one side of the lander either completely missing or open. I may create a mockup before I attempt this.

In ASCII, it would look like this

Landed:

[|]

/ \

Rover decoupled:

[|

/ \ _

You'll have to use your imagination.

Edited June 27, 2013 by GusTurbo